Fine test gives Norway hope

A successful preparation for Norway’s female Beach Handball team has made national coach Eskil Berg Andreassen rather optimistic ahead of the European Championship in Denmark later this month.

“We will definitely aim for a top four position,” he told eurohandball.com.

The Norwegian team spent the past weekend in Hungary, taking part in an international tournament which they ended up winning after having defeated the Hungarian hosts among others.

Hungary and Norway actually met twice in the tournament, with a 2:0 win for Hungary in one game and 2:1 for Norway in the other.

“Hungary have a very strong team and are probably among the favourites to become European champions, so this was a really fine test for our team,” said Andreassen.

Norway still have one last test before the championship, as they are playing a tournament in Denmark this coming weekend, but Andresen has already nominated his team for the championship after the tournament in Hungary.

“We have several new players in the squad, but still I think we have managed to put a really strong squad together,” he emphasised.

When eurohandball.com spoke to Eskil Berg Andresen back in February, he admitted that repeating the success of the last championships at home, when they reached the semi-final, will be a difficult task and that is still his attitude.

“We are obviously in the toughest group, with Croatia and Hungary as some of the favourites to take the title, but still our goal is to at least finish among the four best teams in the competition and thereby qualify for the next World Championship and we should definitely fight for a medal too,” Eskil Berg Andreassen said.

Norwegian squad for the 2013 European Beach Handball Championship in Randers, Denmark: